This invention pertains to solderless wire connectors or terminals used for making electrical connection with insulated conductors or wires. Although the term wire is used almost exclusively in the following, that term is intended to include conductors of non-circular as well as circular crosssection. Electrical contact is accomplished by forcing the wire into a slot. The slot is too narrow to accept both the wire and its insulation. The insulation is sheared away by the edges of the slot and contact is made with the underlying wire. The diameter of the bare wire itself is generally greater than the width of the slot. When the wire is forced into the slot its cross-section is deformed. The resulting residual stresses assure a good electrical contact and firmly hold the wire in the slot.
Many different inventions employ this technique, of which U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,219 U.S. Pat. No. 3,234,498 and French Pat. No. 919,480 are only three. The invention herein disclosed however, deals with the insertion of two or more wires into a single slot. U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,072 is the only patent mentioning such an arrangement which has been found.
Simply inserting two wires in a single conventional slot can lead to difficulties. Deformation will occur not only in the first wire inserted into the slot, but also in the slot itself. The slot will be enlarged by the presence of the first wire and the second wire will not be gripped as firmly as a single wire in that position would have been. It is the purpose of the present invention to provide an arrangment in which the forces acting on one wire may be isolated from the effects of the other wire. The invention disclosed in the following embodiments utilizes isolated beam systems to exert stresses on each wire independently.